Are you making a difference?

Am I making a difference?It's a killer question, isn't it? Of course, the answer is, undoubtedly, Yes. However, the underlying question, the "real" question, is a bit different, isn't it?

Am I making enough of a difference?

or, more challenging yet:

Am I making the kind of difference I had hoped to make?

Any of us who set out to live, love and lead to make a difference find ourselves asking these questions - sometimes gently, sometimes with unmerciful harshness and self-judgment.

Ironically, the answer to these more personal questions is, undoubtedly, No.

And that's as it should be!

Every time you grow, every time you gain new insights and understandings, every time you see new potential in others, you can see more of the horizon. And since you are a seeker, as soon as you get a glimpse of a new horizon, you want to move toward it.

Do you get this? Think about serious mountain climbers. On day one, they climb all day just to reach the first camp. But once there, they look out over the horizon (a different horizon from the one they could see from base camp) and it takes their breath away. "I want more of that!" they think.

The next day they do the same, see a new horizon (better than the one that took their breath away yesterday) and think, "I want more!"

Over and over, this reaching for a new horizon repeats itself. And each new horizon is compared not to the limited one they saw from base camp, but to the last horizon by which they were inspired.

This is the way it is with us. We want more. We reach for more. We are inspired by more.

So the question is: Are you moving toward the new horizon or still trying to reach yesterday's horizon. If the first is true, if you can feel the movement toward something new, you know you are on course, even if you never arrive. If the second is true, it may be time for a change - internally, in the way you see, or externally, with the people and systems who are traveling with you.

Are you making a difference? Of course. Are you, as you make that difference, inspired by new horizons, then moving toward them?

That's a question that only you can answer and, perhaps, is the question that can inspire to tomorrow's climb.